Tanya Ronson obtained a Bsc(Hons) degree in chemistry from the University of Otago, Dunedin and spent a year working as a research assistant in the group of Professor Sally Brooker. She completed a PhD in supramolecular coordination chemistry under the supervision of Professor Mike Ward at the University of Sheffield and then moved on to carry out postdoctoral work on metallo-supramolecular assemblies with stellated polyhedral structures in the group of Professor Michaele Hardie at the University of Leeds. She joined the group of Jonathan Nitschke as a postdoctoral research fellow in August 2011.